What is important
by Izi Seishyun
Summary: A hare, no fire, four hungry and soaked shinobi. But Gai doesn't seem to mind. Part of the Reports saga, can be read on its own. One shot.


**What is important**

It was a heavy storm. Four completely soaked shinobi, packed together rather than sheltered in a cave, looked at the rain with different thoughts. Neji had a soaked set of matchboxs in his hands, frowning. Lee silently attempted to dry his Chûnin vest, shivering and rubbing his hands together. TenTen held a freshly killed hare by the ears, with some disgust: she hated killing animals (and Lee protesting was not a welcome 'sight' , either) but this it was the combined result of her good eye and several empty stomachs.

Only Gai seemed to look at the storm with calm, quite ignoring his wet fringe and the lowering temperatures. None being a Fire type, a Katon was something they could not produce. Neji's matches were wet, as everybody else's, and they had already ran out of food. With such a thick rain, attempting to arrive to Copper Country, located a couple of miles away in the same Land of Rock they were now, was crazy. So no food and no edible plants either. What was worse, none of the rocks they found could be used to light fire.

- There is no point in holding that – Neji adressed TenTen, pointing to the dead hare. – It's of no use if we cannot roast it.  
- You should not have killed it – Lee's reproach was ever present.  
- We had no other option. And it's not pointless – Gai walked to his students, taking the hare, a kunai in his hands. With ease, he skinned it, ripped it open, cleaned it and divided the fresh meat in four equal parts, which he extended over a big paper scroll.

He held one to TenTen, who looked at it with an _EW, GROSS!_ look in her pupils, and barely touched it. Neji was mutinous and about to refuse it but Gai looked no-nonsense. Lee had taken his part, looking at it with the familiar 'betting' face.

- Sensei... I'm not eating this! – TenTen picked the limb with revulsion. Neji had a look in his eyes that said plainly "NO Hyûga will ever eat bloody raw meat" Even Lee was mournfully staring at his part as if it was medicine.

- You three are shinobi or not? – Gai spoke in a tone of dangerous calm. His students jolted in place.  
- Of course, but this is not part of a shinobi's duty.- started Neji.  
- Sure it is – the Jounin sensei started on his part, just as if the hare was an onigiri. – You saw we had no other chance. The Rock country has almost no plants.  
- But... it's raw! – TenTen seemed to find that point the most disgusting of all.  
- So is sashimi – Gai was calmly devouring his part, prompting Lee to take his and begin chomping.  
- It is not bad! Please taste it! Too bad I do not have any curry with me!

Silently battling with grumbling stomachs and the reject of the raw animal, Neji sniffed it and gave a slight bite. TenTen struggled to pull off meat from bone, her guts quenching at every attempt.

- Sensei, how can you eat – that so calmly!? You're used to it or something? – the kunoichi was astonished to see Gai was composedly finishing his part with no signs of sickness or else.  
- Don't ask, it's better – Neji spoke in a soft voice – You know what he's going to answer...

The green-clad jounin didn't answer inmediatly. His eyes wandered towards the entrance, while profiles of his past came upon him. Those faces that he would never see again, those moments that would never return...

He blinked, and all those shadows returned to be what they were, simple mementos. That was past, this was the present, and his expression returned to his happy-go-lucky self again.

- It's nice, very nice you asked that, TenTen. Don't think your sensei is a cannibal, hehe! – His two less youthful students looked as if cannibal was the less they could think of him, given his other... crimes. Lee, on the other side, listened faithfully.  
- Back in the years when I was a Genin, this area of the Rock country was far different from what you see now. Grass, Rain, Rock, Mist, Sand ninjas patroled the area, engaging in combat whenever they found an enemy at hand. Too many people in a place that, as you can see, has little to no food at all.

His eyes were fixed in the remains of the hare. Lee shifted slightly, holding his legs folded to his chest, his shivers forgotten. Neji and TenTen were four pairs of eyes fixed to their sensei, lavender and chocolate circles of equal interest.  
- My team came here at that time, too. And often, the winds from the Water country drifted the storms here. To survive at that time, with that little food, we even had to eat grasshoppers, caterpillars... all of them raw.

Three different gasps came out at that piece of information. Gai made no sign of having heard it, his eyes lost in an undefinite mist.

- And that didn't matter to us. As long as we were safe and under a roof, it didn't matter. The cave was cold but better that than the rain. The food was bad but kept us alive. So many times, we found shelter in this very same cave, together. All four of us, safe and sound, preparing to return home. With the many teams that returned maimed, injured, crippled or did not return at all, that was the only thing that mattered to us.

Lee stared at Gai, his mouth open in a silent 'oh!' of comprehension. TenTen blushed, her eyes fixed in the unfinished hare. Even Neji lowered his eyes. Their sensei lifted his misty eyes, and for a fleeting moment his two Chûnin and his Jounin could see the grief of a man who had seen too many precious people die.

Gai closed his eyes to greet his shadows, again. His students did not break the silence that ensued, until they heard him mutter, in the same, low-key voice, attempting to sound carefree:  
- After all that, a raw hare cannot be that bad, don't you think?

It was surprising to see the loud jounin so quiet and subdued, but yet more surprising for him to see ALL of his students, not just Lee, huddling towards him. TenTen leaned her head on his left shoulder, her left arm on Neji's shoulder. Lee did the same in his right side.

As the storm cracked outside, the two Chûnin fallen asleep at either side and his junior Jounin closing his all-seeing eyes, Maito Gai could see the shadows waving and turning away from him, towards the cave entrance, into the road to Copper Country. Leaving... drifting away... disappearing...

_I'm grateful for the visit. I guess I have to thank you for making me relive those moments...again. And you know, the hare was good... I knew from the start, it was a present from you. _


End file.
